1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to the field of a portable buoyant device for the recovery of persons from an ice-water environment such as a partially frozen lake as well as swampy, muddy, and open water environments.
2. Related Art
There are several devices in existence for the rescue or recovery of drowning victims in situations where they have fallen through the surface of the ice into a watery environment. Although time is of the essence in any water rescue, when a person is submerged in ice cold waters time becomes even more critical due to the possibility of hypothermia. It is important that the device be quickly deployable, that is does not require much assembly or set up. Another factor of the rescue process is the time that it takes responders to protect themselves before they attempt the rescue effort, which usually requires the donning of protective clothing such as a dry suit or the like.
To address these problem devices can be either manned or un-manned; the most common unmanned device is a lifesaver ring attached to a rope thrown towards the victim or variations thereof. While the most common type of manned device is either a boat or skiff structure that is directed towards the victim. The devices are either very complicated or bulky or extremely simple and do not functional well. There is a tradeoff between maneuverability, speed of deployment and stability.